Blog

Studded with mini chocolate chips, double chocolate muffins are something I would typically serve with lunch or as an afternoon snack, but we've been known to enjoy them as an indulgent breakfast item from time to time.

These muffins are best served a day or two after they're baked, but they freeze beautifully in an airtight container for up to a month. To thaw, keep in airtight container as they thaw overnight in the fridge. I enjoy these muffins chilled or at room temperature, but my girls enjoy them heated in the microwave for just a few seconds to melt the mini chocolate chips. If you should happen to find yourself with slightly stale muffins, try this indulgent twist - break a muffin into bits, place the bits in a bowl, and drizzle with heavy cream - heaven!

Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a hand-held mixer).

Use the paddle attachment or, even better, a BeaterBlade attachment! If you love to bake, do yourself a favor on get a BeaterBlade. It eliminates the pesky task of having to scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl. Love, love, love this thing!

On a side note - I have tried a similar attachment that's made by the company that makes the stand mixer and there's no comparison, the BeaterBlade works much better. They're available for various makes and models of mixers so have that information handy before you purchase.

Back to the recipe - add the eggs, applesauce, and cocoa sifted cocoa powder. Nothing worse than biting into a dry clump of unsweetened cocoa powder so don't forget to sift that cocoa!!

Don't be fooled by the simplicity of this dump and mix recipe because these mini strawberry banana muffins taste amazing. I served them at church today and got many compliments... and one of the ladies even went so far as to say, "When I die, you HAVE to serve these at my funeral!"

Well, let's hope that doesn't happen any time soon. In the meantime, I think I'll make a surprise delivery to her house.

I look forward to pomegranate season each year. As soon as they appear at Costco, I grab a case and rush home to break into them. We typically enjoy the juicy arils sprinkled on salads or eaten with a spoon, but I always save some to make these tasty pomegranate ginger muffins. I hope you'll like them as much as we do.

This recipe is pretty straight forward. The first thing we need to do is preheat the oven and prepare our muffin tin (this one is my favorite). I always spray my pans with Baker's Joy - it enables my baked goods to release perfectly.

Cut the crystallized ginger into 1/4-inch pieces. It's pretty sticky stuff so I find sharp kitchen shears work better than a knife for this job.

Ginger ready to go - I cut a little extra for nibbling.

These are pomegranate arils (seeds). If you'd like to see how I get the arils out of the pomegranate, here's a tutorial. We're going to need to reserve 70 arils for garnish. That's about 1/4 cup.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Add the grated lemon zest. A microplane zester is the perfect tool to use for the job.

And the chopped ginger and pomegranate arils.

Stir everything together well; be sure the ingredients are evenly distributed.

Time to add the milk mixture.

Stir just until combined - don't be alarmed if you see a few lumps in the batter.

Evenly distribute batter into the prepared muffin pan.

Sprinkle the muffin tops with turbinado sugar. You can use granulated sugar if that's all you have, but the turbinado crystals are larger so they sparkle and add a nice crunch.

The muffins would be great if we stopped right here, but I have one more finishing touch to add.

Dot the top of each muffin with 6 arils, pressing them gently to make sure they stick to the batter. Pop the pan in the oven and bake for 12-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.